BBC - Tony Blair's speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton

The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong.

I acknowledge that and accept it.

I simply point out, such evidence was agreed by the whole international community, not least because Saddam had used such weapons against his own people and neighbouring countries.

And the problem is, I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam.

The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power.

New York Times - Saddam, the Bomb and Me, by Mahdi Obeidi

By 1998, when Saddam Hussein evicted the weapons inspectors from Iraq, all that was left was the dangerous knowledge of hundreds of scientists and the blueprints and prototype parts for the centrifuge, which I had buried under a tree in my garden.

...

Was Iraq a potential threat to the United States and the world? Threat is always a matter of perception, but our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam Hussein's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.

Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980's, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam Hussein ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.

So what now? The dictator may be gone, but that doesn't mean the nuclear problem is behind us. Even under the watchful eyes of Saddam Hussein's security services, there were worries that our scientists might escape to other countries or sell their knowledge to the highest bidder. This expertise is even more valuable today, with nuclear technology ever more available on the black market and a proliferation of peaceful energy programs around the globe that use equipment easily converted to military use.

Hundreds of my former staff members and fellow scientists possess knowledge that could be useful to a rogue nation eager for a covert nuclear weapons program.

...

Mahdi Obeidi is the author of "The Bomb in My Garden: The Secrets of Saddam's Nuclear Mastermind."

Telegraph - Syria brokers secret deal to send atomic weapons scientists to Iran

Syria's President Bashir al-Asad is in secret negotiations with Iran to secure a safe haven for a group of Iraqi nuclear scientists who were sent to Damascus before last year's war to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

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A group of about 12 middle-ranking Iraqi nuclear technicians and their families were transported to Syria before the collapse of Saddam's regime. The transfer was arranged under a combined operation by Saddam's now defunct Special Security Organisation and Syrian Military Security, which is headed by Arif Shawqat, the Syrian president's brother-in-law.

The Iraqis, who brought with them CDs crammed with research data on Saddam's nuclear programme, were given new identities, including Syrian citizenship papers and falsified birth, education and health certificates. Since then they have been hidden away at a secret Syrian military installation where they have been conducting research on behalf of their hosts.

Growing political concern in Washington about Syria's undeclared weapons of mass destruction programmes, however, has prompted President Asad to reconsider harbouring the Iraqis.

Washington Times: - Inside the Beltway

During a 1997 debate on CNN's "Crossfire," Sen. John Kerry, now the Democratic presidential nominee, made the case for launching a pre-emptive attack against Iraq.

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"We know we can't count on the French. We know we can't count on the Russians," said Mr. Kerry. "We know that Iraq is a danger to the United States, and we reserve the right to take pre-emptive action whenever we feel it's in our national interest."

MORE: Tom Maguire is doubting the Washington Times' use of direct quotes.

MORE: related comments here:

"where's the backbone of Russia, where's the backbone of France, where are they in expressing their condemnation of such clearly illegal activity?"

and

In an op-ed in the Sept. 6, 2002, New York Times, Kerry wrote: "If Saddam Hussein is unwilling to bend to the international community's already existing order, then he will have invited enforcement, even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act."

MORE: The Times has issued a correction: "Due to erroneous information from Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican, an item in the Inside the Beltway column in yesterday's editions incorrectly quoted Sen. John Kerry in a 1997 appearance on CNN's "Crossfire" as arguing for a unilateral, pre-emptive war against Iraq."

CNN - Women held in Iraq: Dr. Germ, Mrs. Anthrax

Islamic militants who beheaded an American contractor in Iraq say they will kill the other two hostages -- an American and a Briton -- unless Iraqi women are released from two American prisons in the country.

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They are Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha Al-Azzawi Al-Tikriti, a scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biological weapons researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax."

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A mobile weapons laboratory found in northern Iraq did contain equipment for making biological agents but no biological material was found, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is expected to tell the Pentagon Tuesday. Pentagon officials told CNN the equipment in the truck had "recently been thoroughly scrubbed."

UPDATE: CNN - Iraq: 'Dr. Germ' to be freed on bail

The Iraqi Council of Ministers plans to release a female prisoner "on bail" from U.S. custody but did not say whether it was responding to recent terrorist demands that women prisoners be freed, according to a Ministry of Justice spokesman.

However, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said Wednesday that neither of two Iraqi female prisoners being held by U.S. authorities would be released imminently, Reuters reported.

Robi Sen's Blog: Iraqi WMD links

Links on Iraq's connection to the Pakistan-based nuclear black market...

FOX - Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program

Investigations have shown that the former Iraqi dictator grafted and smuggled more than $10 billion from the program that for seven years prior to Saddam's overthrow was meant to bring humanitarian aid to ordinary Iraqis. And the Sept. 11 Commission has shown a tracery of contacts between Saddam and Al Qaeda that continued after billions of Oil-for-Food dollars began pouring into Saddam's coffers and Usama bin Laden declared his infamous war on the U.S.

AP - U.S. Weapons Inspector: Iraq Had No WMD [stockpiles]

Bracketed word mine - this headline is a typical AP slant.

Drafts of a report from the top U.S. inspector in Iraq conclude there were no weapons stockpiles, but say there are signs the fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had dormant programs he hoped to revive at a later time, according to people familiar with the findings.

In a 1,500-page report, the head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, will find Saddam was importing banned materials, working on unmanned aerial vehicles in violation of U.N. agreements and maintaining a dual-use industrial sector that could produce weapons.

Duelfer also says Iraq only had small research and development programs for chemical and biological weapons.

Seems correct so far, minus the headline. This is basically what the last weapons report stated. See link at right.

After a year and a half in Iraq, however, the United States has found no weapons of mass destruction - its chief argument for overthrowing the regime.

Zap! Wrong.

Duelfer's report, however, is expected to fall between the position of the Bush administration before the war - portraying Saddam as a grave threat - and the declarative statements Kay made after he resigned.

Where will it fall relative to John Edwards' statement that Iraq was an "imminent threat," I wonder.

Reuters - Powell: Unlikely WMD Stocks Will Be Found in Iraq

Secretary of State Colin Powell, who made the case to the world that pre-war Iraq had stocks of chemical and biological weapons, said on Monday he now thought these will probably never be found.

Iraq Watch: Iraq's Dangerous Junkyard

Last summer, we at the Wisconsin Project warned that even if no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, the potential for export of know-how and equipment from Iraq's banned weapon programs presented a real proliferation risk. We predicted that failure to properly secure these items could lead to their sale to places like Iran or Syria. Since last summer, the United States has been blasted for intelligence lapses and for failure to provide security and prevent insurgency in post-war Iraq. As it turns out, the United States must also be condemned for failing to prevent the looting of sensitive dual-use equipment.

Washington Times: French connection armed Saddam

The State Department confirmed intelligence indicating the French had given support to Iraq's military.

"U.N. sanctions prohibit the transfer to Iraq of arms and materiel of all types, including military aircraft and spare parts," State Department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz said. "We take illicit transfers to Iraq very seriously and work closely with our allies to prevent Iraq from acquiring sensitive equipment."

Sen. Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, declared that France's selling of military equipment to Iraq was "international treason" as well as a violation of a U.N. resolution.